Professional style luncheon provides tips for etiquette

Thursday, April 26, is the Etiquette Luncheon which will take place at 11 a.m. of the glass room in Benedum Dining Hall. Director of Career Services Marie Coffman is in charge of the luncheon and has been for the past eight years.

“The etiquette lunch started out as being part of a class that I teach called professional development. It’s a one credit class that seniors can take and some second semester juniors have taken it as well. It goes over things like getting your first job, your resume, your cover letter and just fine tuning those last-minute things,” said Coffman. “We go over things like benefits in the workplace and how to know what type of insurance to pick, what your first paycheck is going to look like, what to expect as far as taxes coming out of it and things like that. We go over things like that over the semester and the capstone to that course was the etiquette luncheon. That’s pretty much their final for that course, because we meet once a week for an hour.”

Coffman also wants students to know that the luncheon is not a meal swipe for them, the meal comes out of Coffman’s budget.

“It started out with that, and then we decided to open it up to all seniors, so, we open it up and had a lot of seniors come and take advantage of it this year we have a special speaker Erin Marsteller from Aflac. I will also be speaking,” said Coffman.

The etiquette luncheon provides tips and lessons many students may not otherwise have access to. According to Coffman, seniors will “really benefit from it”.

“I think that it will put students at ease a little bit more when they find themselves in those situations later on, they will be like ‘ok I have been here before. What did Marie say or what did Erin say at that etiquette luncheon about this,’” said Coffman. “That’s why I think it’s important, and a lot of times employers will say ‘let’s meet at a restaurant’ and [students] need to know what to order and what to stay away from.”

The luncheon will teach students basic rules such as how to handle silverware or proper ways to eat various foods.

“Sometimes you’ll find yourself in a situation where you’re not sure whose silverware is whose because sometimes it can be very tight quarters when you are sitting down in a big nice banquet and you are just not sure; like there’s etiquette about how to eat a roll or how to eat your soup. We go over all of those little details,” said Coffman.

If you are interested in Coffman’s class it is classified in the self-service tab as the course code: WBE 405.

“The class itself is really good for seniors to take, so it’s just something for them to think about when they are registering for their final semester here,” said Coffman. “I teach it twice, in the fall and in the spring, and as I said the etiquette lunch is the cornerstone to the course.”